The Democratic Policy Committee says rural America gets cheated under President Bush’s budget for fiscal year 2007. Senator McCaskill says instead, the Department of Defense should be trimming its expenses. She says competitive bidding for Defense expenses could recover a significant sum that could help fund the rural law enforcement programs, educational programs and agriculture disaster aid that Bush wants to cut.
McCaskill says she’s confident that she could find data supporting that competitive bidding could cut Defense spending by at least 10 percent. She says that’s 10 billion dollars, equal to about half of Missouri’s state budget, that could fund rural programs. She adds that competitive bidding could represent real cost savings that would not affect any of the budget money that is going directly to troop support.
AUDIO: Laura McNamara reports (:57 MP3)
